No TACO this time from President Trump … as promised, he’s filed a defamation lawsuit over the Wall Street Journal story claiming he wrote a racy 50th birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump filed Friday in federal court in Florida — just about 24 hours after the WSJ story dropped. According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, he says the Journal falsely passed off as fact he’d drawn the image of a naked woman, and signed his name “Donald” to mimic pubic hair.
He claims the outlet had access to information showing their story was false … although, he does not say what that information is.
The suit insists there is “no authentic letter or drawing,” and the Journal concocted the story “to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light.”
Trump says the Journal first contacted the White House Press Secretary on July 15 to say they were publishing the story. That same afternoon, the President’s attorney responded the story was false, and threatened legal action if the WSJ went ahead and published … which they did on July 17.
Not shockingly, POTUS wants an enormous sum from the WSJ and its parent company News Corp. — demanding no less than $10 BILLION.
Of course, the story went everywhere as soon as it broke, and Trump’s legal team took notice — saying in the docs, more than 20 million followers on the WSJ’s X account spread the story, as well as other influencers and journalists.
In the suit, Trump says the story was published “at the direction of” Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson … who are both named as defendants, as well as the 2 WSJ reporters who wrote the story.
Moments after he filed the suit, Trump hopped on Truth Social to hurl more jabs at the defendants — “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal.”
He also bragged about his recent big wins over media outlets like “ABC and George Slopadopoulos, CBS and 60 Minutes.”
A spokesperson for Dow Jones, WSJ’s parent company, tells TMZ … “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
